


Prominent Pupillary Responsibility

by zcinmalik



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Minor Lydia Martin/Stiles Stilinski, Minor Scott McCall/Kira Yukimura, Minor Vernon Boyd/Erica Reyes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-16 17:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2278947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zcinmalik/pseuds/zcinmalik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Paige Krasikeva is Head Girl. Derek Hale is Head Boy. Someone has obviously made a mistake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prominent Pupillary Responsibility

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jolymusichetta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jolymusichetta/gifts).



> Thanks so much to depcutieparrish and dylangayberry for their amazing beta jobs. Thanks also to the mods for putting this exchange together! 
> 
> Title is courtesy of the Wikipedia page on Head Boys and Girls.

“Professor Deaton,” Paige said, a little breathless. She had made a furious run to the Headmaster’s office directly from the Hogwarts Express platform. Some of her hair had come undone from its plait, and she quickly brushed it aside.

Deaton looked up amicably from his desk. “Miss Krasikeva, how can I help you? I was just about to head down for the Sorting.”

“Professor, someone has made a mistake.”

“Ah,” he interrupted, shifting papers in front of him. “That was not a mistake, actually.”

Paige shook her head. “Sir, Derek Hale thinks he’s Head Boy.”

“Indeed, he is.”

Silence descended. One of the odd potions that Deaton kept on his desk began bubbling softly. Deaton’s personal owl gave a hoot from her perch. Finally, Paige spoke in a disbelieving tone. “Sir, it was one thing entirely when Stilinski and Martin were made Prefects-”

Deaton frowned. “I’m surprised at you, Paige. Miss Martin and Mister Stilinski are outstanding students, and-”

“Well that’s hardly the point, is it!” Paige burst out. Deaton raised an eyebrow and Paige abruptly toned it down. “And, _sir_ , how- why- how could- I could handle that, but on top of it- I have to deal with _Hale_ as Head Boy!”

An uncomfortable silence descended once more. Paige lowered her gaze to the floor but didn’t regret a word. It’s not like it wasn’t _true_ , she thought a little bitterly. Why would Deaton do this to her? This year was supposed to be the best one. Being Head Girl was supposed to be the crowning achievement of her entire Hogwarts career. But now she found out she was supposed to spend it herding the most trouble-attracting fifth years in the entire school, _and_ she was supposed to do so with the one person she hated the most on the entire continent.

Deaton cleared his throat and stood. “I must ask you to trust my judgment. I’ve appointed you as Head Girl because I know you are the person best suited to the task. The same goes for this year’s Prefects _and_ Head Boy. Those are my final words on the subject.” 

* * *

Paige was still fuming as she started to stalk towards the Great Hall.

“Paige!”

Paige’s shoulders lowered a bit and she properly exhaled as she turned to see Allison jog her way, adjusting her tie as she went.

“Why did you leave?” Allison asked, her face a little flush. “Look, I know you think it’s a bad idea, but they’re going to be fine. Don’t you remember how long it took for me to adjust last year?” This was a bit of an exaggeration. Allison had almost immediately become an excellent Prefect as a fifth year. “They’re my friends, I know them all and I know they’ll do well.”

Paige started to feel a little hot around her ears. Allison had been at the Prefect orientation when Paige abruptly called it off. If Allison could see through the excuses she had made, could the others, too? It was one thing to think privately (and voice to Deaton) that the newest Prefect additions were more likely to break rules themselves than stop others from breaking them. It was another thing entirely for them to _know_ that was what she thought. She already wasn’t exactly the most popular person in the school. The word “hardass” had come up only too many times. Not like it was necessary to feed into the reputation.

“Well, no, of course not,” she cut in hurriedly. “It’s not _that_ -”

Allison, who had caught her breath, gave Paige a skeptical look.

“It’s not!” Paige objected. “I mean, not… _just_ that. I mean I won’t say I don’t have some concerns about Stilinski at the very least, but-”

She found herself inspecting the ground. “But it’s mostly Hale that I’m having problems with.”

“Well if you wanted to settle them with a little private talk,” called out a smarmy voice from the other end of the hall, “all you had to do was ask, Paige.”

Paige felt her face fully flush now. Her fists clenched as she whirled around.

Hale had always been called various iterations of “handsome” by other Ravenclaws. And, well, by the rest of the school. Paige personally couldn’t see it. As she loudly proclaimed whenever the topic came up, Hale had a permanently smug expression, too-full lips, too-thick eyebrows, and something about his nose was off.

Allison coughed behind Paige and said, “I’ll just… leave you to it.”

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Paige spat at Hale, failing to notice Allison leaving toward the Great Hall.

Hale spread his arms wide. His Head Boy badge was pinned neatly to the left side of his shirt. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

“It _looks_ ,” Paige said, stalking forward, “like you’re _sabotaging_ this position, probably to give an unfair advantage to Gryffindor and subsequently to your precious Quidditch team. Because I know for a fact that you, Hale, have about as much of a sense of responsibility as Peeves does.”

A smirk overtook Hale’s face.

“Well I’d encourage you to voice your concerns with Deaton, but it sounds like you’ve already tried that and it didn’t go too well. I guess you’re just stuck with me.”

Paige glared, unable to retort because the ass was right. He had clearly worked his charm on Deaton. It looked like Hale was staying Head Boy- for now at least.

“But don’t worry!” Hale assured as he turned to walk back down the hall. “I think we’ll make quite the power couple!”

Paige, now nearly apoplectic, was left standing alone in the corridor. 

* * *

Paige was not really a hardass, she thought bitterly during the trek to the feast. She just struggled with some social situations.

Like this one. Beginning Prefect orientation on the Hogwarts Express by walking into the compartment, seeing that Hale was there, ordering him out, and then having him tell her gleefully that getting out would be difficult as he was Head Boy… it hadn’t been an ostentatious start to the year. But she could fix it.

The Great Hall was even louder and more boisterous than usual on the first night back, with spirits high thanks to the Sorting ceremony and the promise of a huge meal. Paige immediately caught sight of Hale with his clique at the Gryffindor table and walked over, ignoring the surprised looks she got from Vernon and Danny as she passed the Ravenclaw table. One of Hale’s friends saw her and elbowed Hale, who looked up in time to see Paige come to an awkward stop, standing across the table from him.

He grinned.

“Paige! You’ve finally graced us with your presence! Move over, Cora, let Paige sit.” Hale’s sister rolled her eyes and shifted to the left.

Paige gave him a cutting look, ignoring the space Cora had made.

“This isn’t a social call, Hale. I just wanted to let you know that we’re meeting to redo the Prefect orientation tomorrow afternoon at four. I’ve already booked the Charms classroom.” She turned on her heel and even made it a few steps before Hale called out, “Wait!”

Paige huffed and turned back. When he simply grinned at her for a few seconds, she lost her patience and snapped, “Oh, spit it out already.”

Hale’s smile broadened and he said, “See you tomorrow, Paige.”

The laugher of Hale’s friends followed her all the way back to the Ravenclaw table.

“Everything all right?” Danny asked as Paige slumped into her seat, no longer bothering to keep up the stiff-backed position she had maintained during her pointed retreat.

Paige started seizing the foods nearest her and piling them onto her plate. Next to her, Vernon grinned and said, “Oh, she’s just having a little lov-”

“ _Don’t_ , Vernon, I swear I’ll hex you.”

“You know,” Danny said, “I really think this is the best thing that could’ve happened. In fact I have a mind to write Deaton a personal thank you letter.”

“For _what_?” Paige asked, shoving a dinner roll in her mouth.

“Well, for one thing, putting Hale out of his misery and giving him an excuse to see you regularly without any of the usual stunts. You know, setting off fireworks in the hallways-”

“Holding Quidditch practice outside the common room window-” Vernon put in.

“Sending you Howlers on your birthday that sing-”

Paige sighed. “And you don’t think he’ll find ways to torture me when we have to see each other every day?”

“Well,” Vernon said, “Not if it becomes, you know, mutual.”

“We _hate_ each other, he’s the bane of my existence. It’s _already_ mutual.”

Vernon and Danny exchanged knowing looks. Paige tossed pastries at both of their faces in retaliation. 

* * *

By the next afternoon Paige had informed all of the new and old Prefects when and where they were conducting the make-up meeting. Two minutes in and it was already going poorly.

“Martin! Stilinski!” She had barked as soon as she entered the room to find the new Slytherin Prefects making out in a corner. Martin promptly hopped off of Stilinski’s lap and into the seat next to him, while Stilinski began trying- and failing- to fix his undone tie.

“Is this going to be a recurring problem?” Paige sighed. Before either of them could answer, the new Hufflepuffs entered behind her, hands linked and whispering softly. The girl giggled at something the boy said, then looked up and held out her free hand to Paige.

“I’m Kira,” she said brightly.

“Scott McCall,” her partner added. Paige shook Yukimura’s hand and then McCall’s before they went to join Martin and Stilinski. The latter somehow looked even more enthusiastic about reuniting with McCall than he had about hitting second base with Martin.

Despite the fact that two of the new Prefect pairs were actual couples- _as if that could possibly go wrong_ , Paige thought- at least she knew some of the returning ones well. Vernon and Danny were there, as was Allison, who had already started bonding with the newest Gryffindor additions, Braeden in particular.

Paige checked the time. It was about five after. No sign of Hale. She suppressed a smile at the thought that he’d be out of his position in no time at this rate.

“Okay,” she announced, “It looks like our Head Boy is missing, but we’ll have to start without him. Welcome to-”

The door, which Paige had gently shut before beginning in order to cut out the corridor noise, promptly burst open to reveal a rather sweaty-looking Hale, still in his Quidditch robes, grinning brightly.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said, shutting the door behind him and walking over to stand next to Paige at the front of the room. She glared, but he didn’t seem to notice. “Had to push practice back to make it!”

“It wouldn’t have been the same without you,” Paige said dryly, then turned back to her notes. “Welcome to your Prefect orientation, and I apologize that we were forced to cut the first one short. Your primary responsibilities are to lead and help students and to enforce school rules…”

She went on through her prepared speech and doggedly ignored the occasional yawns that permeated the room. Well, she did until the point in time at which even Allison’s eyelids began to droop. Then Paige quickly concluded, “Okay, sign-up form for nightly patrol is here, ask me if you have any questions.” It wasn’t until Martin and Stilinski got up simultaneously that Paige saw an immediate issue.

“Wait!” she called out hurriedly. “I, um, think it might be for the best if we do inter-House patrol pairs. For… unity and fairness.” _For not having to deal with those two spending their patrol time on dates or looking up necromancy in the Restricted Section or whatever the hell they get up to_. 

Martin raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow, but while Stilinski deflated for a moment, his eyes shortly thereafter lit up as he turned back to look at McCall.

“Scotty!” he beamed, and McCall stood up for a quick high five.

“No!” Paige shouted desperately. They both turned to her with betrayed, wide-eyed expressions. “Um… I just think we should do different-gendered pairs too. Because…” _Because if_ those _two get to pair together they might actually blow something up_.

Suddenly a warm hand clapped down on her shoulder. “Because that way we can all mingle!” Hale reasoned cheerfully. “Get to know your fellow Prefects better!”

Paige looked up at him, too grateful for the assist to be distracted by the slightly mischievous glint in his eyes. “Yes, exactly,” she said.

“That’s why Paige and I are paired up!” Hale announced brightly. 

* * *

“Well,” Allison said. “It was your idea, after all.”

Paige groaned and kept her face hidden in her arms. She was slumped over in a desk in the Charms room, still trying to figure out what had gone wrong half an hour later. 

* * *

Derek Hale aside, the term had begun relatively well. Paige earned ten points for Ravenclaw in Professor Morrell’s first Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and in Transfiguration Professor Kali let them begin turning tables into tigers.

With N.E.W.T.s coming up, it was only a matter of time before Paige and the rest of the seventh years would have to start submitting their job applications. This was a source of worry for Paige, despite the fact that she was confident in her abilities in the classroom. She still didn’t know what she wanted to do once she graduated, being from a Muggle family and not having been aware of her options from a young age, as most of her friends were. Even Vernon and Allison, who were still sixth years, had long-standing plans.

Vernon knew that he would likely become a Curse-Breaker, as he and his girlfriend Erica wanted to travel the world once they graduated. Danny had already been offered a position as a private Arithmancer for next year. Allison’s family wanted her to continue their tradition of working in the higher levels of the Ministry, but she had already decided to join the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol.

Hale was in a similar position, as his mother was the Minister. It was common knowledge that the Hales and the Argents, despite the close proximity with which they worked, were on opposite sides of the aisle politically. In fact, many students were surprised at the distant but amicable relationship between Hale, his sister Cora, and Allison.

Hale himself would probably become a professional Quidditch player. Paige cast a precautionary Cheering Charm on her tiger, who was still rather stiff but no longer oak-patterned. Yes, that was definitely where Hale was headed, to get even more attention than he was used to while flying around. Paige’s tiger flopped onto his side contentedly. 

* * *

“Oh, will you just _cut it out_!” Paige shouted, to no avail, as two members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team dodged through the post-dinner crowds of the hallways. They were playing catch with an illicitly acquired Quaffle. She’d been trying to chase them down as they ducked her and laughed, and this was just so _typical_ -

“Hey, Reyes! Tate!” A voice carried out over the heads of everyone. Paige came to a sudden halt, causing a number of first years to topple into her. She quickly set right one who had been about to fall to the floor. Then she was searching for the source, eyes narrowed, as if she didn’t recognize that cavalier voice. And yes. Of course Derek Hale had arrived.

He’d benevolently cut a path through the students, with all of the ease that had eluded Paige less than a minute ago. They just fell before him, she thought bitterly, Derek Hale, champion of everyone in the goddamn school. Even the two Gryffindors had stopped, grinning easily at their captain. The blonde one, who Paige now recognized as Vernon’s girlfriend Erica, was still casually tossing the ball up and down.

“Let’s move practice to the actual practice field, shall we?” Hale asked easily. He raised his voice over the sound of the crowd of students chatting and milling to their respective common rooms. “And Malia, remember I want you to work on actually _dodging_ the Bludgers, not just letting them pummel you while you try to score, yeah?”

Tate shrugged indifferently, but Reyes cut in. “We’ve actually been working on it, practicing with the Quaffle. See?”

Without warning she took a step back and hurled the ball at Tate’s face. Before Paige had enough time to shriek at the thought of Reyes breaking her own teammate’s nose, Tate raised an arm and lazily caught the Quaffle inches from her face. Hale frowned.

“Well that tactic won’t exactly work with a Bludger, but--”

“Progress, right?”

Hale, perhaps sensing Paige’s swelling fury and the hole she was burning in the back of his head, hastily clapped Reyes and Tate on the shoulders. He turned them toward the exit that led to the Quidditch pitch.

“Go on, get out there and tell Cora to get everyone started. I’ll be there soon.”

Paige marched over to him as he turned back to her. A slightly guilty grimace overtook his face.

“Well, it was an honest mistake-” he started, before Paige cut him off.

“Honest mistake? Really? You don’t think they picked it up from their captain? Because I seem to recall _someone_ saying when we were third years that Quidditch practice happens wherever you have a Quidditch ball!”

Hale couldn’t suppress a smirk at that, but before he could say a word, Paige bellowed, “I don’t want to hear it! Five points from Gryffindor for disrupting the hallways!”

“Well, in fairness,” Hale said. A quiet had fallen over the students who were walking around them and a number of heads had turned to see the source of the yelling. “I don’t think they’re the only ones disrupting the hallways.”

Paige felt her face turn pink. She abruptly turned and started walking back to the staircase, and she could swear that behind her she heard the unmistakable sound of Hale laughing. 

* * *

Fall passed faster than Paige had anticipated, especially since she was juggling ten classes, her old Prefect duties, and the new patrols that she conducted with Hale nightly.

The first of these was, admittedly, an unmitigated disaster. Paige was convinced that everything was when Hale was involved. He had spent the first hour asking endless questions about Muggle music, and what a cello looked like, and whether or not Paige would practice outside of the Ravenclaw common room sometime.

“Whittemore! Twenty points from Slytherin, and next time I catch you jinxing in the hallways it’ll be fifty! Lahey, to the Hospital Wing,” Paige snapped. Then she rounded on Hale. “No, Hale, the purpose of practicing the cello is to get better at it, which I couldn’t exactly do if you were distracting me by bouncing Bludgers off the walls. It’s hard enough to concentrate in my common room as it is.” She whirled back around and continued making her way through the corridors. She got a wide berth from most of the students. Hale jogged to catch up.

“So I’d be a distraction, huh?”

“You wish.”

At that point they turned a corner to find that the entire hallway before them had been transformed into some sort of horror house. The lights were almost all gone, so that the students were stumbling in the dark. They held their hands out to try to find the wall and screamed bloody murder when they inevitably walked into one of the many apparent monsters that had been stationed throughout the corridor. A red-eyed vampire jumped forward at Paige with his arms stretched out and his fangs bared. Before he got within a foot of her, Hale had shoved her to the side and drawn his wand. Paige jumped back and smacked at the hand that was holding it.

“Don’t _attack_ him, he’s just a student!” 

And sure enough, the faux vampire stumbled back in terror when Hale turned his wand on him and shouted, “I’m a third year, I’m just a third year!”

“It’d serve you right if I did!” Hale lectured to the student. In any other situation Paige would scoff at Hale of all people adopting a righteous tone with a rule-breaker. But right now a group of younger students had just stumbled out of the dark corridor, gripping each others’ robes in a sort of conga line of terror. They were all alternately screaming and nursing their small injuries.

Paige rushed forward into the dark and pulled out her wand, yelling, “ _Lumos Maxima_!” She groaned and dropped her hand to her side when it had no effect on whatever was enchanting the hallway. To her right, Hale, who had followed her in, said, “ _Finite Incantatem_.” Slowly, the black fog that had come over the hallway began to lift, and a hoard of students came into view. Many had fallen over onto the stone floor and some were still shouting in pain and panic.

Paige heaved a sigh and turned to look at Hale, who, rather than expressing any concern over the disaster before them, had proudly lifted his chin a bit. He looked at her with his eyebrows raised in expectation. She glared in cold silence, until a first year wailed, “I think I broke my arm!”

Paige turned away, stuffed her wand back into her robes and snapped, “All right, well done, you managed to cast a spell, congratulations. Now help me fix this.”

“You only had to ask, Paige,” Hale said brightly. He made his way over to the fourth years dressed as ghouls whom he apparently suspected of being responsible.

“Happy Halloween?” one of them chirped nervously. 

* * *

Being Deputy Headmistress, Morrell dealt with more of the disciplinary infractions than Deaton did, so she was the one to whom Paige and Hale submitted their paperwork on the incident. It wasn’t until they had left her office that Paige said, “Anyway, thanks.”

Hale turned to her in genuine surprise. “What for?”

“Well,” Paige said, resolutely not making eye contact with him as she continued to walk. “You thought- it was a stupid thought, but you thought that the vampire kid was an actual threat. And if he had been, you pushing me out of the way would’ve saved me. So thanks for having my back.”

Before Hale had the chance to do more than swell with pride, Paige added, “In your own stupid way at least.” She bolted to the right and up the stairs to Ravenclaw Tower, leaving Hale to smile at her departing figure. 

* * *

“Kira!” Paige called. Paige hurried to catch up with her as she exited her father’s classroom with some fellow fifth years. Kira turned and paled a bit upon seeing Paige.

“Stiles and I had nothing to do with the flood on the second floor last night,” she said quickly. “And even if we did, it was really the Bloody Baron’s fault, he interrupted us while we were doing some perfectly harmless experiments, and-”

Paige came to a halt in front of Kira and gave her a bemused look. “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing!” Kira squeaked. “What are _you_ talking about?” 

“Will you tell Scott and Stiles and Lydia that we need to have a meeting tomorrow?”

“Oh,” Kira said, smiling. “Yeah, no problem!”

Kira turned and ran to catch up with her friends. Paige looked after her, wondering if she dared to look in on the second floor or not. 

* * *

The next day everyone was in the Charms classroom on time except for- _what a surprise_ , Paige thought- Hale. The others didn’t seem to mind waiting on him. Allison and Braeden were quizzing each other on Care of Magical Creatures while Lydia was reading a book written in a language Paige didn’t even recognize. Kira and Stiles were whispering to each other over handwritten notes that looked suspiciously as if they might detail a plumbing prank. Scott was holding Kira’s free hand, sweetly pretending he couldn’t hear whatever they were planning.

If Paige had started off on the wrong foot with this year’s new prefects, she felt that she had at least fixed it well. They now tolerated her insistence on bi-monthly meetings and properly filled-out paperwork. In exchange, she no longer called them by their surnames and she gave them some leeway in subtle (or not-so-subtle, as she suspected the case may be) rule-breaking.

Paige opened her mouth and was about to begin the meeting when Hale skidded into the room, a Quaffle still tucked under his arm from the Gryffindor practice session. Paige narrowed her eyes at the offending ball. He shrugged, not even pretending to be repentant as he joined her at the front of the room.

“Okay,” Paige said. “The Yule Ball is coming up in a few weeks. We have a lot of planning to do. First, I think we should host a few workshops that are mandatory for anyone who wants to go.” The room promptly groaned. Even Danny and Vernon tossed balled-up scrap parchment in Paige’s direction. The traitors.

“It’s important! At least two, okay, one for alcohol safety and one for safe sex. Now I’ve drawn up a few outlines for how these should be organized…”

Half an hour later, Paige felt pretty proud of her work, but no one else looked very impressed.

“Oh, whatever,” Paige snapped, rolling the parchment back up and tucking it in her bag. “You’ll all be thanking me when you don’t have any second years vomiting on your shoes. Any questions?”

“I have a question,” Stiles said promptly, raising his hand and leaning forward. “Is any part of this dance actually going to be fun?”

“Of course it will,” Paige said. “We’ll take duty shifts through the night. You can wear whatever you want and dance, you just can’t drink. Obviously.” Ignoring Stiles’ dramatic head roll of dismay, Paige concluded, “All right, I’ll see you all next week at the alcohol workshop.”

As the Prefects slowly filed out of the room, Hale dropped into a seat and propped his feet up on the nearest desk, tossing his Quaffle unconsciously.

“So,” he said. “Yule Ball.” Paige pretended to ignore him, packing the last of her things into her bag and then tossing it over her shoulder.

“Want to go with me?” Hale asked, and Paige turned to look at him from where she had been poised to leave the room. She stared at him, and he looked back, casual as ever, his near-constant little smirk still firmly in place.

“What?” Paige asked.

Hale stood, setting the Quaffle on the desk and walking closer to her. His relatively small frame belied how athletic Paige knew he was, from years of pretending not to watch him play Quidditch.

“Do. You,” he said, teasing, “Want. To go with me.”

“Well, but-” Paige floundered. “We- we’re going together already. We have the same shift.” She unnecessarily gestured to her bag, wherein lied the perfectly drawn-up schedule.

“Well I know that,” Hale said, still smiling, unfailingly confident. “But when we’re _off_ shift, I’m wondering if you’d like to dance.” He reached forward and brushed a lock of her hair off her shoulder, and somehow it broke her out of whatever spell she’d been under.

“Hale, I can’t,” she insisted. “It’s one thing for the Prefects, but I’m Head Girl and you’re Head Boy and that means that we’re supposed to be on duty all night, not getting distracted halfway through and-”

Hale’s eyes lit up. “Distracted! So you admit I’m distracting!”

Paige narrowed her eyes. “ _No_ , though clearly not for lack of trying.”

“So you’re saying I’m not in the slightest bit distracting?”

“Of course not,” she said, leaning forward into his space despite herself. “I have laser-like focus.”

“Well I don’t know what that means,” Hale admitted (Paige rolled her eyes because of course he wouldn’t pay attention in Muggle Studies), “But it sounds like a challenge. How about this- let me listen to you play that cello thing. If I really can’t even make you slightly distracted, I swear that for the rest of the year I will never again allow a Quaffle, Bludger, or Snitch inside this castle.”

Paige raised an eyebrow.

“And I’ll also do all of your Herbology essays, I know you hate them,” he added. “But if I make you mess up a note, you dance with me at the Ball.”

Paige opened her mouth to respond, but Hale cut in, “ _And_ , and, call me Derek for the night.”

“Oh,” she said, taken aback. “Well, if that’s all. Fine.”

Hale beamed.

“But-” Paige couldn’t help but feel like she was missing something. It was one thing for Hale to want to see her trip over her own feet, that was to be expected, and she didn’t doubt that his primary motivator in asking her to the Ball was to ensure that he helped her make as big of a fool of herself as possible in front of the rest of the school. But why, then, the name thing? What did he care? And- “I mean, don’t you have someone you actually want to go to the Ball with? For real?” she asked. He looked at her with a confused sort of expression.

“Of course I do!” He insisted. And then, shooting one last grin her way, he walked out of the classroom. 

* * *

They decided to do it in the Gryffindor common room, even though Paige had her misgivings, because Hale insisted that he had made sure it would be empty this afternoon.

“Amentiam,” Hale said to the portrait of the lady in pink, and she smiled indulgently at him as the door swung open. Paige carefully lifted her cello case over the entrance and stood for a moment, admiring the Gryffindor common room. It really was very nice, she thought, and for some reason it wasn’t as hot as she had thought it would be. She set the cello up near the center of the room and finally sat down to it, glancing one last look at Hale, who was now standing to her right.

“No magic, right?” she confirmed.

“I promise,” Hale said. “No magic and no noise.”

Something was off. Maybe it was the unfamiliar setting. Maybe it was the bet. She felt warm. She must have been wrong in her initial assessment of the room. Paige turned to the cello, raising her bow to start.

She was only a few notes in when she felt breath near her neck. She inhaled and kept playing, ignoring the feeling of Hale leaning into her space and lingering near her right ear.

He just hovered there, and she continued playing perfectly over the next few minutes. It occurred to Paige that he really had underestimated her ability to focus while playing. The thought made her pulse ratchet up. If only he were physically blocking her right arm, or if he were actually touching her instead of just nearly-touching her, he might have already won. Right now, nothing was impeding her at all. The song was a short piece, and she was more than halfway through playing it.

Hale was going to lose. Paige swallowed.

She jerked her arm wildly off-course, ripping a screeching, sour note out of the cello. At the same moment, Hale’s mouth descended on her ear.

Paige turned her head sharply and nearly bashed it into Hale’s. He jerked upright just in time to avoid the collision. He didn’t react to the near-miss, though. His expression was surprised and a bit calculating as he took in Paige and the cello. A long, stifling silence fell over them.

“Damnit, Hale,” Paige bit out finally. “You- you surprised me. You threw me off.”

“Yeah,” Hale said, sounding entirely unconvinced. “I guess I did.”

Paige quickly turned to start loosening her bow.

“I should’ve known you’d-” Paige cut herself off and rubbed at her ear self-consciously. She refused to look at Hale as she quickly packed the cello up. “I’m sure you’re thrilled, but don’t go spreading it around the school, I can only handle so much indoor Quidditch practice. And having you write my Herbology essays would’ve been a disaster anyway.”

Paige stood and tucked her cello case under her arm. Before she could rush out of the room, Hale blocked her way.

“So I guess I’ll see you at the dance,” he broached. Paige nodded and found herself biting back a smile. “And thanks for playing,” Hale added, seemingly emboldened by her expression. “That was quite the, uh, performance.”

Paige allowed herself to grin once she was back in the corridor. 

* * *

What had happened with Hale and the cello and the warm Gryffindor common room wasn’t important enough to take precedence over all the work she had to do. The pre-Ball workshops had to be advertised, catering had to be ordered, she had to go to Hogsmeade to buy a new dress, and on top of that she had an Herbology essay due on Thursday.

“Don’t you think you might be overdoing this?” Vernon asked. He was sitting next to her at lunch as she furiously scribbled an outline of the set-up and cleaning schedule for the Ball.

“Not possible,” she said without looking up. “It’s a very important event.”

“If you say so.”

Paige looked up suddenly. “I forgot. Hey Allison!” She shouted across the Great Hall and Vernon stared at her as if she’d gone over the edge.

From the Gryffindor table Allison looked up. Paige pointed at an invisible watch on her wrist and Allison nodded, collecting her bag and walking out. Paige did the same as Vernon continued to watch her, bemused.

“What was that?” he asked finally.

“Oh, I need a new dress,” Paige said, standing from the bench and taking a swig of juice. “We’re trying to beat the crowd out to Hogsmeade.” She grinned down at him and waved goodbye cheerfully.

“Huh,” he said to himself. 

* * *

The night of the Ball, it was snowing hard and rather chilly, even inside the castle. Paige had been overseeing everything in the Great Hall since early that afternoon and was unconsciously tugging at her skirt for the sixteenth time when Scott arrived with the last of the (literal) fairy lights.

“Thanks,” Paige said, gesturing at them to fly up and alight on the wall. “Um, not that you’re anyone’s keeper or anything, but-”

“Kira’s still getting ready back in the rooms,” Scott said. “Lydia was worried Stiles might try a prank to liven the night up, so she’s keeping him _preoccupied_ for a while.” He wiggled his eyebrows and Paige failed to suppress a giggle.

“Oh, also,” Paige added, walking to the stage and triple-checking the sound, “Could you please take over for me for a bit about an hour in? I’ll be taking a quick break.” She turned back to Scott once everything looked right to see him giving her a knowing look.

“A break with Derek maybe?” he suggested, smiling.

Paige pretended to shove past him, but she was grinning. 

* * *

Paige lined up all of the Prefects ten minutes before the dance was set to start and ran through the schedule one last time. She made them all individually confirm their duties for the night. When Stiles gave her a sardonic salute in reply, she decided not to tell him that he still had some red lipstick smudged on his neck.

Paige was running through her checklist one last time when she absently tugged at an ear and realized she had forgotten to put on any jewelry.

“Shit,” she muttered, then looked up and around. “Hey, Vernon?”

Vernon walked over, Erica Reyes on his arm. His pocket square perfectly matched her dark blue dress.

“I have to run up for something. Can you keep an eye on all this?”

He nodded and Paige dropped her list on the nearest drink table before leaving.

She passed several groups that were already headed to the Great Hall. Paige huffed a bit as she got to the Ravenclaw common entrance room after taking the stairs, and knocked on it loudly. Her housemates knew by now that she was terrible with the eagle knocker’s riddles and more often than not too impatient to take time to work them out properly. She nodded in thanks at one of her suitemates when she let her in, then hurried into their room and tugged the trunk out from under her bed. It took a few long minutes of stacking clothes and random old knick knacks on her bed to finally find a pair of earrings and a necklace that would match.

Paige quickly snapped them on, didn’t bother with repacking everything, and started the trek back down to the Great Hall. She felt more nervous than she knew she should. It was just a dance. It probably wouldn’t even be that fun. Derek would undoubtedly do and say any number of embarrassing things. She still found her pulse steadily climbing as she skipped the last stair, took the nearest shortcut, and found herself outside of the open doors to the Great Hall, where music was already playing and about half of the school was dancing or milling by the drink tables.

Paige scanned the room, looking over heads and around bodies, and then she froze.

Derek was there, standing with most of his teammates in black dress robes. And at his side, leaning over at that very moment to kiss his cheek as he laughed and gestured toward her, clearly introducing her to his friends, was a lovely woman with dark hair and bright eyes.

“Shit,” Paige breathed. “Fuck.” She looked around again, finally seeing Scott dancing with Danny at the other side of the Hall, and took off toward him.

“Scott,” she said quickly, needing to make this fast so she didn’t start making a fool of herself in front of everybody. “I need you to take over for me now. It’s an emergency, I’m sorry, I have to run.”

Scott gave her a confused look and Danny asked, “Everything okay, Paige?”

“Fine, fine,” she said, the back of her eyes beginning to burn. “Scott, I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

“It’s no problem, I-” he began to say, but she had already turned and left. 

* * *

Paige got back to the Ravenclaw Tower entrance in record time, having run faster than she realized she could just to get away from the reverberating sounds of the dance. Everyone was down there by now, no one would still be in the common room to let her in. She wiped her face furiously of tears and demanded of the eagle knocker, “Well?!”

It spoke in its usual slow and pointedly dignified manner, as if to prove that it wasn’t beholden to anyone.

“At night they come without being fetched. By day they are lost without being stolen.”

“Oh,” Paige said, finding herself tearing up again. She always struggled with its riddles, _always_ ; they weren’t exactly her branch of expertise, and tonight of all nights she couldn’t stand the thought of being stuck outside of her own room. “I don’t- house elves? Birthday presents? No, those don’t get lost. Is it… oh, I don’t know! Mosquitos?”

The knocker seemed to be giving her a rather unimpressed look. She sighed and slumped down to sit next to the door. The dance was still going strong, and Paige glumly considered the possibility that no one would come and solve the riddle until near sunrise…

“Oh!” she shouted, standing quickly and causing the knocker to rattle a bit in surprise. “Stars!”

“Yes, or dreams,” the knocker added as the door swung open for her.

“Oh, thank god,” she sighed, quickly walking in. The common room was empty as she had guessed, and Paige started to undo the clasps on her necklace and earrings as she made her way to the room she shared with the other seventh year girls.

She was brought short by a sudden, loud banging coming from the door that had just closed behind her.

“Paige!” Derek shouted from the other side. “Would you open the door?”

Unable to believe his nerve, Paige rounded and stormed over to the door, shouting through it, “Go the _fuck_ away, Hale!” 

“I didn’t track down Boyd and make him tell me where your _stupid_ tower is and then go up all the damn stairs involved to turn around and go the fuck away,” he snapped.

At this Paige couldn’t contain herself, and wrenched open the door.

“You’re _supposed_ to already know where _every_ common room is, you idiot! I honestly don’t even know how or why you got Head Boy in the first place!” She shouted. Derek was wiping sweat from the back of his neck and huffing for breath.

“Maybe because I _asked_ for it!” He shot back with exasperation.

“I don’t care!” Paige snapped. “I don’t care if you asked for it or if Deaton just gave it to you because Derek Hale gets whatever he wants! Want to know what I care about? The fact that I’d thought by now you’d at least respected me enough not to humiliate me with some stupid trick-”

Derek threw his hands up in the air. “Of course I asked for it! And he didn’t just _give it_ to me, just because you think I’m useless doesn’t mean the rest of the school does.”

“Oh sure, because between the two of us, you’re definitely the one who’s been made to feel useless,” Paige bit out. “What a difficult night for you! Well if you’re so offended that I’ve _clearly_ misunderstood your noble fucking intentions, then do tell why you’d want to be Head Boy in the first place.”

Derek took a few steps forward, but Paige refused to move back. “Do you know that for someone so apparently brilliant in every which way you’re actually infuriatingly slow on the uptake?” He seethed. “Because I wanted to impress you, you moron! Why do I do _anything_? For the past five years, I’ve just been trying to impress you!”

“Oh really?” Paige said. “And making me look stupid, that was supposed to impress me, huh? You wanted to impress me by asking me to the dance and then taking someone else?”

At this, the eagle knocker, which had remained rather poised in the face of being yanked open and forced to watch their exchange, turned a rather scornful look on Derek, as if the knocker was the only one allowed to be an annoyance in Paige’s life. Derek noticed and glared back.

“I didn’t!” he protested. “Ugh, that was my _sister_! Laura! She’s only here because she’s taking over the History of Magic position next year. And I’m going to have to shower for a decade just to get the _idea_ that you thought we might be together away from me.”

Paige opened her mouth to furiously retort, but then paused. Now that she thought about it, they had looked a bit alike. And in retrospect, the kiss to the cheek was rather sisterly. She closed her mouth abruptly, but then collected herself again.

“Well how the hell was I supposed to know that?” 

“Could you ever just trust me?” Hale retorted. “You could’ve asked or just- I don’t know! Because despite the fact that you’ve been determined to hate me ever since we met each other, I’ve never given you a reason to believe that I would ever- I’ve been _flirting_ , for god’s sake, and alright, I was a bit of an asshole sometimes, but-”

“A _bit_? No, stop, I’m trying to register the fact that you are _apparently_ trying to convince me that sending me a serenading _Howler_ on my birthday was your idea of fucking courtship!”

Derek gave her a sardonic smile. “Oh, right, you had no idea, of course. When you’re the one who _sabotaged_ your own bet so we could go to the Ball together.”

Paige froze. She tried to reply but couldn’t.

“Yeah, thought we’d both just pretend that didn’t happen, didn’t you?” Derek crossed his arms.

Paige’s throat felt very dry. He was right. She had, in a painfully obvious manner, intentionally thrown the bet. And being confronted with that, if nothing else, was enough to force her to acknowledge what she had been fervently ignoring.

She had known Derek for a long time, after all. And she wasn’t entirely oblivious. Paige was well aware that, had she ever had any literal pigtails, Derek certainly would have pulled them. He was easy to read. He always had been.

Like right now. Derek’s arms were still crossed over his chest, he was still red in the face from running up the stairs and arguing. He was breathing deeply and looking defiant. He was boyishly handsome. As handsome as everyone always said he was, no matter how much Paige tried to convince them otherwise.

And really, for all that her feelings about Derek had always been confusing, wasn’t that _particularly_ off? All of their fighting could be explained away as youthful animosity. All of Derek’s attention-seeking could be explained away as, well, Derek being Derek. His more pointed efforts… those were evidence of a crush, undeniably. But Paige’s actions? Her near-obsession with him and his rule-breaking? Her vehement denial of his every positive attribute? She had to admit to herself that if Derek or anyone else had displayed any of these behaviors, she would have recognized them immediately.

She continued staring, now dumbly, at Derek.

They stood in silence for what felt like a long time. The snow outside continued falling thickly against the door and windows. The eagle knocker, having apparently gotten bored with the argument, had returned to its solid form.

“I don’t think you’re useless,” Paige mumbled. “In fact, you- you’ve been a pretty good Head Boy so far.”

Derek heaved a frustrated sigh and dropped his arms to his sides. “Oh, well as long as that’s cleared up. Wouldn’t want to think you didn’t approve of my job performance.”

“Give it a _minute_!” Paige snapped. “Just because we don’t all ride around on broomsticks shouting about our feelings.”

At this, the barest hint of a smile started to curve Derek’s mouth.

“It’s possible that I might have been aware of this whole…” Paige gestured from herself to Derek and back again. “I mean, yes, obviously, I sabotaged my own bet. Because, obviously, I wanted to go to the dance with you.” Derek raised his eyebrows and made an impatient “go on” gesture. Paige rolled her eyes.

“And, since you need to have it spelled out for you, I like you.”

For someone that had just presumably been told what he wanted to hear, Derek still looked mildly annoyed. He lifted his arms up in an exaggerated shrug. “Then why have we been doing all this? Why the back and forth over whether or not you actually wanted to be around me?”

“I don’t know!” Paige said impatiently. “Because if it became more than us hating each other or flirting with each other or whatever it was, then- I don’t know, it’d be… different.”

“Well,” he said, this time a bit awkwardly. He scratched the back of his neck. “It doesn’t have to be. We could still patrol together. I could still hold Quidditch practice outside Ravenclaw tower. On your birthday I could-”

“ _No_ ,” Paige said firmly, and surged forward to kiss him. He caught her and drew her closer, and when he lifted a hand to trace the outer edge of her right ear, she bit his bottom lip in retaliation.

The eagle knocker, apparently not as unconscious as it had pretended to be, coughed in pointed annoyance after a minute. It was enough to make Paige sigh into Derek’s mouth and then take a step back.

“We should probably-” she started.

“Close the door?” the eagle knocker asked waspishly.

Paige ran a hand through her hair and reached forward to straighten Derek’s robes. He was grinning dazedly at her.

“We should probably go relieve Scott,” Paige suggested. “And then… dance?”

Derek promptly turned back toward the stairs and held his arm out. Paige closed the door behind her and took it. 

* * *

(“So does this mean I can finally patrol with my girlfriend, now?” Stiles asked.

Paige rolled her eyes from where she and Derek were standing at the front of the Charms room.

“Fine. Only because you and Kira cause more trouble together than I thought you’d get into with literally anyone else.”

“Damn right we do,” Stiles preened, and Kira leaned over Scott and Lydia to give him a high five.)


End file.
